The public would have a better idea of what chemicals shale gas well developers are using, under legislation approved by the Ohio Senate on Tuesday and now headed to the Ohio House.

But the state stands to lose $2 billion in new wind farm development because of that same bill.

If approved by the House of Representatives next week as expected, the legislation would encourage public colleges and other institutions to build heating and power plants fired by natural gas and get credit for them as renewable energy, as proposed by Gov. John Kasich.

Those credits now go to help finance wind farms, and developers will probably not be able to build five farms already permitted because the new system would squeeze them out.

The shale gas portions of the bill go further than Kasich initially proposed, requiring oil and gas producers to submit a detailed summary to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources of what chemicals they have added to water used to hydraulically fracture the shale in order to free the oil and gas.

And the bill would lift the cover of secrecy about proprietary chemicals at least partially by requiring companies to justify in writing to the department why they want certain chemicals kept secret because they believe they are proprietary.

Kasich praised the effort. "The policy improvements made in this bill are significant, including revising renewable energy standards to now include waste heat, protecting our townships and counties by formalizing Road Use Maintenance Agreements, adopting chemical disclosure standards for fracking wells, and improving Ohio's underground injection program," he said in a statement.

Environmentalists fear that these chemicals, some of which are toxic, could find their way into streams and rivers if spilled or migrate into ground water from a well that is not properly constructed. A typical shale well can use 6 million or 7 million gallons of water laced with sand and chemicals. The chemicals account for only 1/2 percent of that cocktail.

Thomas Cmar, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the disclosure requirement is an improvement over what the governor proposed. The council has lobbied lawmakers right alongside industry lobbyists.

"That's a significant improvement," Cmar said. "But it still only applies to after-the-fact disclosures. The law would not require them to say what chemicals they propose to use."

If that information were available before a well is fractured, the public and cities that rely on wells would be able to have testing done ahead of time to establish a baseline for contamination.

Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said requiring the companies to disclose the chemicals before a well is drilled and fractured is not realistic.

"Nobody makes that decision until after they drill and analyze the rock characteristics," he said.

Requiring companies to tell the state what chemicals they plan to use before they drill "would slow down development and create a bureaucratic morass, which is the goal of the anti-development crowd," said Stewart."

The legislation does not give the public the right to appeal a drilling permit issued by the natural resources department, yet it keeps the right of appeal for a company whose permit was denied.

The debate over renewable energy credits pitted the wind industry against environmentalists and state officials who see an opportunity for industry and institutions to build ultra-efficient heating and power plants. The new generators would help fill the shortfall created by the decisions of the state electric utilities to close older power plants rather than upgrade them to meet new environmental standards.

The bill won approval in clearly partisan vote, 27-6, with all six "no" votes coming from Democrats. Comments from senators Michael Skindell, a Lakewood Democrat, and Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, showed the magnitude of the differences of opinion.

"The disclosure in this bill, although a step in the right direction, nonetheless is no more than a distraction of the real harm of this process to our environment," Skindell said before voting against the measure.

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